Why are we still talking about company culture in 2016

1. B&P Articles
Why are we still talking about
Organizational Culture in 2016
Larissa Schein
Human Resources Consultant @ Baglietto & Partners

2. Baglietto & Partners Articles, Ottobre_2015 Pagina: 2
Organizational Culture
The concept of organizational culture was
introduced to the field of management
and organizational studies in the late
1970s, and from the mid 80's it had a lot
of attention of researchers and professors,
building on insights from sociology and
anthropology, at this stage researches
suggested that organizational culture
could be used as a resource to affect
employees performance and actions and
create competitive advantage.
Let's take a step back and think about a
company as a living system, we can use a
simple definition of system: (context
where members fit together and are
interdependent like a puzzle). In this
sense we need to consider the 3 pillars of
the systemic theory to better understand
how is the culture built and specially who
is/are the constructor(s). The pillars of the
systemic theory are: Complexity,
instability and intersubjectivity.
We may also say
that as a system
the reality, or in
our case the
culture is co-
constructed every
day by the
interactions and
behaviors of
everyone that is
part of the system,
it means all of the
population that
works within the
company.
Motivation
TAG CLOUD
Complexity
Culture
Competitive
advantage
Systemic
Theory
After this brief theory dive, we may say
that to have a strong culture has nothing
to do with magic or luck as we may think.
It is all about… people!
And if we speak
about people and
work life there is
only one concept
that we can talk
about and that is
motivation, what pushes us to wake up in
the morning and go to work? Our
motivation mainly depends on that
answer. According to professors Edward
Deci and Richard Ryan from the University
of Rochester, the reasons why we work
may be defined in 6 different concepts:
PLAY: what we would do even if we would
not get any money for it , we like doing it,
and have fun.
PURPOSE: we can see the bigger picture
of our work, and it gives us a lot of energy
and sense.
POTENTIAL: we may use in our work our
full potential and feel great about our
achievements and increase our self
efficacy.
EMOTIONAL PRESSURE: we do what we
do to avoid some kind of external
pressure, or disappointment.
ECONOMIC PRESSURE: we work to gain a
reward or to escape a punishment.
INERTIA: we don't know exactly why we
do it, we just do it
Organizational
culture magic,
luck or…
People
People

3. Baglietto & Partners Articles, Ottobre_2015
People to what`s important in their live
through friendly, reliable and low cost air
travel”, and there is purpose, giving a
greater meaning to the work.
They also allow people to use other
talents during work hours, as singing for
example, (singing during take off for
example), and they invest a lot of effort
to transmit joy and fun to workers and
clients, (model runway on air, concert on
air). Most and above all they walk the
talk saying that the most important thing
for the company are people, satisfy and
recognize internal and external clients,
they just happen to be in the airline
business. Also in the reward and
processes we see the consistency. Above
and beyond, is the name of the
celebration and benefits for employees
who go above and beyond to support and
satisfy clients. It is also recognized by the
CEO with shout outs and videos on
intranet, internet
and events with
their story.
Employees feel
valued, recognized,
able to express
their potential and
part of the company. An example that
culture support success.
To conclude, maybe knowing that is an
never ending process and that the
responsibility is from the top
management to all of the workers,
maybe, and I say maybe, we may work on
developing and enhancing culture instead
of talking about it.
A company`s Culture is a never ending
building process that feedbacks itself
trough the interactions and behaviors of
everyone that works within the company.
Of course we are not leaving processes
out of it, rules, rewarding system and
consistency. Once the company has a set
of rules, ethics and processes defined
everyone has to work, especially
managers to behave and interact in a
consistent way, in this way day after day
the culture will be co constructed. A
company that wants to enhance the
culture or create a stronger culture that
support success should invest in at least
one of the 3 first topics of motivation.
Either the play, purpose or potential
aspect.
As an example we may take the
Southwest Airline case,
it has been a profitable
company for over 35
years, it has a really
strong and recognized
culture, in fact the
company combined the
3 first aspects of
motivation: “our
purpose is to connect
Pagina: 3
Play,
Purpose,
Potential,
Economic
Pressure,
Emotional
Prssure,
Inertia
Most and
above all
they walk
the talk